The lab at Boston University responsible for this study has studied the brains of 165 deceased football players in total, 91 of whom played in the NFL. The rest played in college, high school, or professionally outside of the game's top ranks. Notably, the occurrence of CTE in non-NFL players is less frequent — 44 out of 74 — than in NFL players. That implies that the specific rigors of the NFL, along with the increased number of years professionals spend playing the game, is worse for the human brain.

There’s one caveat to note in all this. As PBS Frontline, which published the study, says, "many of the players who have donated their brains for testing suspected that they had the disease while still alive, leaving researchers with a skewed population to work with.” That is, the studied brains came from a self selected group of men worried about CTE. The occurrence among all NFL players is likely less than 96 percent.

While the NFL certainly hates to see headlines like this one splashed around the internet, the truth is that no one is surprised by these statistics. By now, the point has been proven. Football leads to CTE, which leads to an awful, shortened life.

The question now is what next? Reducing concussions, as the NFL says it had done, is a good start. But as mentioned, concussions are not the only problem. At the very least, and really, this is the very least, the NFL has a responsibility to publicize these statistics. If the league cannot stop traumatic brain injuries from happening on the field, players should at least know what they’re in for.